Headley finding something wrong in being a righty

SAN FRANCISCO  It’s still a right-handed world. Even in the game of baseball, where so much more fuss can be made over left-handed pitchers and left-handed power, the vast majority of players throw and hit righty.

Chase Headley is gifted enough to be a switch-hitter, but in his head of heads, he’s a righty first.

“I don’t know if it’s just that I hit so much more right-handed growing up,” said Headley before Saturday’s game at AT&T Park. “But there’s no question, if I was involved in a Home Run Derby, I’d hit right-handed.”

All of which has made much of this season so confounding for Headley, who came into this weekend batting above .300 as a lefty, but only .185 as a righty facing southpaw pitching. Seven of his eight homers came batting left-handed.

San Francisco opened with two lefty starting pitchers, and after opening with a resounding RBI triple off the wall against Jonathan Sanchez, Headley stroked a single. In his first at-bat Saturday against left-hander Madison Bumgarner, Headley doubled inside the third-base line to drive home Jerry Hairston.

“I’ve been tinkering with my swing, trying to get some things going with it, because I know I’m a much better hitter than I’ve shown from that side,” Headley said. “I think I’m on to something. I’ve taken some pretty good swings the last few times out. That’s the way it’s supposed to feel. I know it’s in there.”

The year (2007) he was the Texas League Player of the Year and won the batting title with a .330 average, Headley was remarkably balanced, hitting virtually the same from both sides of the plate. As a Padres rookie, he actually batted better right-handed.

Whatever the Padres were facing, Headley’s only been withheld from the starting lineup in four of the Padres’ 115 games, though he batted in three of them. His struggles against southpaws figured somewhat in the Padres’ decision to trade for Miguel Tejada, but they’ve also continued to throw Headley out there against them.

“It means a ton to me,” said Headley. “That’s one of the strengths of this staff. They aren’t rash with their decisions. They give you a chance to work your way out of things. I’m thankful for that, because there are an awful lot of organizations that aren’t like that. For younger players trying to break into the big leagues, that can be hard.”

Doth protest

The eventual win by the Padres rendered everything moot, but chances were slim to none that manager Bud Black was going to win his official protest of Friday’s game anyway, given the fact that no protest has been upheld since 1986. Black did, however, have a hand in the most famous case of a game being replayed because of protest.

“I went from having 117 career losses,” said Black, “to having 116.”

Black would have been the losing pitcher of the infamous “Pine Tar Game” of July 24, 1983, at Yankee Stadium, where George Brett’s go-ahead homer with two outs in the ninth instead was ruled an out due to New York’s claim that Brett’s bat bore too much pine tar. The Royals protested, and the ruling was overturned by league President Lee MacPhail. The game was resumed from the point of Brett’s home on Aug. 18, a day off for both clubs.